Haitian TPS holders in Florida get green light to renew driver licenses

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Feb 18, 2026

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Haitians in Florida with Temporary Protected Status can continue renewing their driver licenses, Miami-Dade County said, citing updated state guidance.

But the directive only applies until March 15 or when a court makes a decision in the ongoing appeal process filed by the Trump administration following the decision by a federal judge earlier this month to halt the end of the protections. TPS has allowed more than 300,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States on a temporary basis due to ongoing political, security and humanitarian crisis in their homeland.

The Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office said it is assisting eligible residents in accordance with a directive from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Individuals with TPS or a pending application who present an expired Employment Authorization Document will remain eligible for a driver’s license through March 15. Those seeking issuance beyond that date must provide alternative proof of lawful presence, consistent with the advisory.

Immigration advocates warn that Haitians should check their state’s requirements and in some cases may need to seek other alternatives to driving like public transportation or carpooling to avoid a traffic infraction and possible detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The guidance follows a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes, who earlier this moth temporarily halted the federal government’s efforts to end TPS after five Haitian nationals sued the Department of Homeland Security. DHS asked Reyes to lift her order, and last week she declined while also ordering the administration to update its systems so that Haitians with driver’s licenses can remain eligible to drive.

In addition to appealing to Reyes herself, DHS has also filed a separate appeal in the case, Miot et al vs. Trump, now before a federal appellate court.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have submitted briefs supporting Haitian TPS holders from the AFL-CIO and 10 affiliated labor unions as well as from 17 states and the District of Columbia. Among the roughly 50,000 TPS holders who work in health care, many are employed in Massachusetts, where “40% of the front-line staff in nursing homes are foreign born, many from Haiti,” lawyers wrote.

Massachusetts boasts the third-largest population of Haitians in the U.S. after Florida and New York. The other states that have joined the brief are California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Main, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

The states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, argue that stripping Haitians of TPS would harm their economies, which would likely face a wave of mortgage foreclosures, decline in tax revenues and souring of their economies.

In the court filing, they said TPS-eligible Haitians contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy; 14.5% of TPS holders are entrepreneurs, compared with 9.3% of the U.S.-born workforce, and TPS holders pay taxes “on property having a total value of $19 billion.”

They also noted that TPS holders from all countries, including Haiti, paid $3.1 billion in federal taxes and $2.1 billion in state and local taxes.

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